Blackstone aims to raise $781M in La Quinta offering

Stephen Schwarzman’s Blackstone Group is looking to raise over $781 million by taking its mid-priced hotel chain La Quinta Holdings public.

Blackstone purchased the Irving, Texas-based La Quinta in January 2006 for around $3 billion, and company management mulled a possible sale before ultimately settling on an initial public offering, sources familiar with the matter told Bloomberg News. Roughly 30 percent of the hotel company’s shares will be floated in the IPO, and Blackstone will own just under 70 percent of the common stock, according to filing data.

La Quinta, which operates more than 800 hotels in the U.S., Canada and Mexico, is to price its shares on April 8, according to Bloomberg.